


Reboot (11) - The Hidden Library

by Prisca



Series: Reboot-Universe [11]
Category: Jeremiah (TV), The Faculty (1998)
Genre: Crossover, Get Your Words Out Bingo 2016, M/M, Reboot-Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 21:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6874537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prisca/pseuds/Prisca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Casey had been able to fight the alien queen who tried to take over the world, but her death released a virus which killed almost everyone older than twenty. Casey & Zeke are on the road since some months now, looking for a place named 'Thunder Mountain'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reboot (11) - The Hidden Library

**Author's Note:**

> **What you should know about my Reboot-Universe:**
> 
> This Universe is a x-over between The Faculty (movie) and Jeremiah (TV-series). You don't need to know anything about Jeremiah nor The Faculty to read these stories, but if you do some elements will be quite familiar to you. Please notice: Not movie conform.

The Prompt-Pic:  


[ ](http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/prisca1960/14132163/77212/77212_original.jpg)

Casey looked at the big white building in front of them and he felt somehow disappointed. Not what he had hoped to find. Michelle, the leader of a group of people, living near a small town named Clearwater, had told them about the old mansion when they had asked her for 'Thunder Mountain.'

"It's a mixture of a pub and a whorehouse," Michelle had warned them.  
"But don't let yourself be fooled. The owner is a big guy with a booming voice, but he is quite okay. You can trust him. Give him this note, and he will let you go downstairs.

If there is any place around to find pieces of information it is the library of the mansion. Whenever I find some documents or books from the old times, I bring them the there, the safest place I know."

Zeke had looked at her doubtfully. That didn't sound very plausible. A library, a place full of books and documents, in a whorehouse? They had passed a lot of places, towns, villages during the last months and it was always the same. Destroyed, plundered houses, shops, churches, and libraries. During these times everything was somehow useful, books meant paper, paper you could use to keep yourself warm. No one thought about it that all that got destroyed would be gone forever; everyone just wanted to survive the next day.

The young woman had smiled as if she could read his mind and pointed at the wall behind him. A wall covered with all kind of pictures and paintings; on the mantelpiece of the old fireplace two old vases and a silver candlestick. Casey couldn't take his eyes away, with sparkling eyes he had been standing there, taking in the beauty. How long was it that he had something like this?

"There was a time I thought like you do," Michelle had told Zeke.  
"I was responsible for other people, and I took what was needed to make sure that we all could survive. I was pretty good with it, you know, we only lost two guys within a year because of a stupid accident.

But one day I ended up in an old monastery, some miles away from the town. It felt like a shock when I discovered that everything was almost untouched. Because someone had protected it. All the time. An old monk, he had survived the Big Death by sealing himself off from the world outside. He called himself the Guardian of the Past.

He told me: 'The death is not the end. But when we wipe out our history, also the future will die.'

Two nights later he died. And I was the only one who still knew about all the treasures. Enough to ensure the surviving for all of my people. The winter was coming, one of the women was pregnant, we needed more blankets and bullets for the guns. But all I took with me was the food and some firewood. Some of the books for myself. The rest I kept secret.

In the meantime, there are three more places like the monastery; the library is one of them. Whenever I find a work of art I try to save it; sometimes I even pay for it, with food, water, clothes."

Suddenly she had looked sad.  
"I'm a good leader, you know, I take care of my folk. But I'm not completely honest with them anymore. I'm afraid, they wouldn't understand what I'm doing."

Zeke had kept quiet. A part of him thought that her behavior was pretty stupid. This was not the time for sentiment. The old world was gone forever, and no one could need paintings and old books anymore. You needed to let loose if you wanted to survive. He had realized this soon enough during the first weeks and months after the Big Death. Without him, a lot of people at the Merriot Hotel in Herrington wouldn't be alive anymore. He had been the one who had gathered food, fresh water, gas, and batteries; more than they needed for the moment; fully aware that everything they had taken for granted throughout their life would be gone soon enough. For sure he wouldn't have hesitated even for a moment to treat in all he did found somewhere in a monastery or elsewhere for necessities of life..

Then his eyes were fallen on Casey who was still standing in front of the wall with the pictures and paintings with sparkling eyes. And he had known it: Casey was different. Casey had changed him. And he was able to understand what was going on in Michelle.

+++

The excessive noise hit them the moment they entered the main house. The hall was filled with smoke from an open fireplace, a skewer of meat was hang up over it; a young boy turned the crank on and on. Casey preferred not to think about it what animal it might be; it didn't look as if anyone here was very picky.

On stage, a band was playing. If you wanted to call the noise, the three guys produced on a badly tuned guitar and an improvisational drum set some kind of music. Three or four more or less unclothed girls were moving around the room, screaming and laughing when one of the guys grabbed for them. Most of them in a drunken state. One thing Zeke had to acknowledge: whatever the innkeeper served, it seemed to be worth its price.

The big, broad-shouldered guy with a full beard stood behind a long wooden bar counter. The upper half was protected with a monitoring grid; two small windows could be opened and closed when needed, the small grilled door locked with a heavy chain. Two guns, visible for everyone, on the table behind him. The guy was not stupid. It was a dangerous business. Two or three dozen drunk guys who did spend too much time alone on the roads; a handful of girls, half naked and obviously ready for everything, this outright cried for problems.

Zeke glanced at Casey, he knew well enough that he felt uncomfortable in places like this. And to be honest, Zeke wasn't even sure that they were at the right place. When a hidden library had ever existed here, it was probably long gone. Maybe it was better to leave before they attracted too much attention. But the determined glint in Casey's eyes told volumes.

"We should at least ask him," he said as if he could read Zeke's mind; forcing his way into the overcrowded room. Zeke followed him without hesitation; no way that he would lose sight of him here.

The guy behind the bar eyed them with cautious narrowed eyes.  
"Beer," he asked.  
"Or Whiskey? I accept tobacco and tins, sugar and milk powder."  
Then a slight grin showed up on his lips while he looked at Casey.  
"What's with you? Ever had fun with a girl? Maybe I can help you."

Zeke stiffened, but before he could step in, Casey chuckled slightly. Usually, he had good instincts, and Zeke decided to keep quiet, at least for the moment.

"No, thanks. I'm more interested in information."

"What am I, an inquiry office?"

"I guess you are a guy with secrets. Michelle told us about you."

Besides of a slight flickering in his eyes, the guy stayed unmoved.  
"Michelle, huh? Nice name. When she is just as cute, I'm interested."

"I'm afraid she's much too smart to waste her time in a place like this," Zeke dropped in.  
"She gave us this for you."  
Slowly he pushed Michelle's note through the small window. The guy studied it for a long time. Finally, he looked up and nodded slowly.

"Okay. To put a long story short: I don't trust you. I actually trust no one. Beside of Michelle. Even if I can't understand why she's doing all that, she is special. Try to cheat on her, hurt her, and you will have a problem."

Casey smiled at him openly.  
"We won't do anything that can harm her," he promised.  
"We are just looking for information. Michelle thinks maybe we can find some answers here."

"What kind of answers?"

"Thunder Mountain. Ever heard about this place?"

"The resort? Sure!"  
He glanced over at the crowded tables, the drunk guys, the girls, and finally pulled the face.  
"Though they are living pretty much cut off from the outside world. Try to keep their existence secret. But guys get drunk, have some fun, and they start to talk.

It's somewhere out there in the mountains, northwards."

"Good God!"  
Casey paled and grabbed for Zeke's arm.  
"So we are finally on the right track."

Maybe. Maybe not. Zeke wasn't easily convinced. At the beginning of their trip, he had been sure that Casey was chasing the product of a crackpot. In the meantime he had changed his mind; there were too many rumors about this mysterious place; it did exist, at least it had existed once. But he still wasn't sure what would await them when they finally reached it. Casey did believe that it was his mission to find Thunder Mountain. But what then? He wasn't sure that they would get welcomed with open arms.

Zeke turned back to the guy behind the bar.  
"Have you ever been there," he asked.  
"Do you know how to get there?"

"No!"  
The guy shrugged.  
"I'm not looking for asylum, and I can take care of myself. Not interested in hooking up with others."

"Get it. What's with the library Michelle had talked about?"

Reluctantly the guy pointed at a small door behind him.  
"It exists. Down there. Because not many people know about it."  
The hidden threat in his voice was impossible to ignore.

+++

Casey stopped breathing when they stepped onto the gallery of the library. Through small windows at both ends, some light was falling into the huge room, though it couldn't reach all parts of it. An old, wooden spiral staircase led down into the shadowy depths. Shelves of books everywhere, from the bottom up to the artful decorated wooden ceiling.

"Holy shit," he murmured, feeling dizzy. Whatever he had expected, not this. The air was dusty, but not unpleasant; it was a smell of leather and old books. When his eyes adjusted to the half-light, he finally was able to take in more of the surroundings. The old desk with the wooden chair in front of it, some comfortable large armchairs in front of the fireplace, silver candleholder on the mantlepiece. The high ladder on wheels, so that you could reach the books on the top shelves. Some old paintings on the walls.

It felt as if the world outside didn't exist here; this was a place of beauty, of knowledge, of eternity. Even Zeke, who usually wasn't easily to impress, kept quiet for a while, to take in the atmosphere. He had always liked libraries; during his first years at boarding school, he had spent there hours and hours, in the try to get away from the madness around him at least for a while. Even after the Big Death, he had never stopped reading; especially horror stories written by Stephen King or Dean Koontz. Probably kind of weird, as if the world around wasn't frightful enough.

After a while, though, his rational mind got the upper hand over his surprise. They were here for a good reason; had hoped to find information about Thunder Mountain. The question was, where to start. He hadn't expected that the library would be that big; several hundred, no thousands of books, most of them pretty old, though.

Casey's hand touched his arm and tore him out of his thoughts.  
"It's hard to believe that this is real, isn't it," he almost whispered.

"Yeah."  
Also, Zeke lowered his voice automatically; it somehow felt wrong to disturb the silence in the library, even if no one was around who could feel bothered.  
"Wanna go downstairs?"

He turned around, followed by Casey. Cautiously Zeke tested every step, just to be sure. The wooden staircase seemed to be in a good state, but the last thing they could need was to break through or to fall, to risk a fracture.

Downstairs it was almost dark; not much light came in through the gallery windows. The batteries of his flashlight were almost dead, and it got more and more difficult to find charged ones, so Zeke was thankful to discover two antique oil lamps on a small rack.

The flickering light brightened only the middle of the large room, but it was enough to notice numerous boxes piled up beside the fireplace. They looked somehow out of place, and Zeke remembered Michelle's words again. 'The library is the good place to keep all kinds of papers in safe custody. Every time I find some old documents or journals I try to bring them there.'

"Great," Zeke grumbled.  
"It looks as if a lot of work is waiting for us."

***

"Zeke?"

He looked up from a pile of papers he was searching through, not able to say how many time had already passed. Luckily Michelle had done her best to establish some order, so their task went quicker than expected.

Casey was standing beside of the desk, an old, wooden one, with a lot of drawers and a small hutch on top. Some older journals were lying in front of him but apparently not they had caught his attention. He had picked up his oil lamp and looked slightly confused.

"Anything of interest," Zeke asked.

Slowly Casey shook his head.  
"We are not alone," he answered.

"Mice? Rats, maybe? We should tell the guy; he needs to get rid of them."

"No, it's nothing like that. Someone hides under the desk."

"What do you mean?"  
Zeke frowned, suddenly feeling alarmed.  
"Better come over here."

To his surprise, Casey chuckled slightly.  
"I don't think that she will hurt me. It's more that she's afraid of us."

Zeke cursed inwardly. She? What the heck was going on here? Who was 'she'? And why was she hiding under the desk? Did the guy upstairs knew about her? If he did, why hadn't he mentioned it? What do they plan? And if he didn't know about her, how did she come in here? Not many people could know about the existence of the library; the only entrance was locked with a chain, the windows at the gallery were small and metal-grilled. The guy for sure knew to safeguard his property.

Too many questions, too little answers. Cautiously Zeke crossed the room. When he reached the desk, he could hear it, too. Suppressed breathing, a sporadic sniffing, silence again. Strange, but not dangerous. Without further ado, he grabbed Casey's shoulder and pulled him some steps back from the desk before he bent down and risked a glance. Whatever he had expected, not this.

"Oh shit," he blurted out.

"Don't scare her."  
Casey was at his side again and stretched out his hand.  
"Hey. You don't need to be afraid of us. We are friends. Why don't you come out there?"

+++

The little girl was wearing oversized flap trousers and a plain, white shirt which emphasizes the first impression that she was tiny and helpless. But her green-brown eyes told something different. Though she refused to talk she was obviously not scared of them.

"My name is Casey. And this is Zeke."  
He smiled at her and tried it again.  
"Will you tell us your name?"

Again no reaction.

"Maybe she can't understand us," Casey pondered.

Zeke shrugged, unsure what to think of her. She was young, four, five at the very most, too young to survive alone. And she didn't look undernourished or neglected. Someone seemed to take care of her. But there was something in her eyes. He wasn't sure if he did like it.

Footsteps on the gallery tore him out of his thoughts. The voice of the guy echoed through the library.  
"Rose. What are you doing here again?"

She barely turned her head.  
"The decontamination did not work. We have to burn the bodies. The darkness is coming. There is no one left to play with anymore."

Her voice was calm and sad, and her words made Zeke shudder. The guy only nodded and came down the stairs. Almost gently he put his hands on her shoulders.

"You need to listen to me," he said.  
"I've told you not to leave your rooms in the evening. Unless I'm with you. Do you understand that?"

She stared at him for a moment, then she turned around, and without further ado, she ran upstairs that quick that she was practically a blur.

Zeke thoughtfully glanced at the guy.  
"Sorry, we've probably scared her."

"Not your fault."  
The man shook his head.  
"She shouldn't come here alone. But I'm afraid she will always find a way. It seems as if this the only place, where she feels safe."

"What's wrong with her?"

Zeke could hear Casey's voice trembling and put an arm around his shoulder. The guy smirked slightly; finally, he shrugged.  
"It's all or nothing, your choice. She is as fucked up as a lot of us."

"But what she said ..."  
Casey shuddered slightly.  
"The darkness is coming. The decontamination did not work. What's the meaning of that?"

"I don't know."  
His face was almost expressionless when he answered.  
I actually don't know much about her and what she had to go through. One morning I found her in the woods nearby. Together with her mother.

Pretty girl, but sick. Very sick. It was obvious that she wouldn't survive for long. Last thing you can use in this business. It gets around quickly when someone dies near to your house because of a fever."

"The virus," Zeke asked.  
"I've heard some mutations of it are still existing."

"I'm not a doctor. All I can say is that it obviously was not contagious."  
The man smirked.  
"Because I'm still alive. Rose is, too."

Her mother wasn't that lucky. She died two days later. Long fight, I tried to make it easier for her, that was all I could do. Rose refused to leave her; she didn't sleep, she didn't eat. She didn't cry, not even when it was over. All she said was: 'We need to burn the body.'

Fucked up, like I said."

"She's still a child."  
Casey couldn't hold back for longer.  
"What do you expect? She's all alone. She has seen her mother dying. Of course, she is scared stiff. You need to help her to get over it."

The guy kept quiet for a moment.  
"To get over it," he finally repeated.  
"She won't get over it because this nightmare will never end. And I can't help her. I let her stay here. Because kicking her out, back onto the roads, would be the death warrant for her. She has a place to sleep; she gets enough to eat. That's more I would do for anyone else. No one can afford it anymore to give away anything for free."

He pointed at the oil lamp on the desk.  
"Don't forget to pay for the oil later."  
Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the spiral staircase and left the library.

Casey huffed annoyed.  
"What a fucking prick," he murmured.

+++

"Case, calm down, okay," Zeke begged him.  
"I'm sure he is a good guy. He takes care of her. As good as he can. Difficult times, you know that."

"She needs more than this," Casey answered. He was so not in the mood to think rational.  
"What kind of life is awaiting her when she gets older, Zeke? This is a whorehouse. You know what will happen if we don't help her."

Zeke sighed. He knew what Casey was thinking about. But to take her with them, even only for a short time, until they would find a better place for her to stay, was not an option. In the Chevrolet was no room for the little girl. He couldn't help it, all his instincts outright cried to leave this place, to leave her behind as soon as possible.

"Maybe," he admitted.  
"Maybe not. She is not like others. Gives me the creeps."

Casey's eyes sparkled annoyed when he looked at Zeke.  
"That's ridiculous. She is just a scared, little girl," he hissed.

"Well, but even you have to admit that all she says is everything but normal. And her eyes ..."  
He shuddered when he thought about her dark green-brown eyes.  
"She reminds me of this creepy guy in Herrington with all his mystery prophecies."

"Oh!"  
For a moment Casey kept quiet until all his tension slowly melted away.  
"This again. He was alone, Zeke, for much too long, and even though his words sounded weird, he did believe in them. We all need a goal we can strive for.

I'm thankful because without the mission he told me about I wouldn't be here ... together with you."

Zeke pulled him into his arms for a gentle kiss.  
"I don't regret it," he reassured him softly.  
"I don't regret to be on the road together with you. But if I would meet him again I would hit all the shit out of him. For all, he had done to you. All the nightmares, all the danger out here. In Herrington, you would be safer."

A smile sneaked on Casey's face while he thought about the Merriot Hotel and all his friends he had left behind.  
"Herrington would be good for Rose, too. Greta. Ben and Jason. Other children to play with."

Zeke eyed him thoughtfully.  
"Ohio is far away," he murmured.  
"And I can't promise if we ever will be able to come back here; it gets more and more difficult to find gas for the Chevrolet."

He thought at the documents he had found in one of the boxes; documents about a military experimental laboratory in the mountains. Nothing concrete, but enough to convince him that it possibly was identical with the resort the guy had talked about, with Thunder Mountain. The most of the complex built into the mountain, protected by a large, steel gate and barbed wired fences. When people were able to survive the Big Death in a monastery, like the monk, Michelle had told them about, then it was even more possible that they could survive entirely isolated under a mountain, too.

There hadn't been many details about the position of the lab; somewhere in the Bighorn Mountains, for sure in the backcountry, with not many towns and villages around, no one who would ask curious questions. But there was also this old newspaper article, talking about streets, which seemed to end in the nowhere. Helicopters at night; parachutists and airdropped, small boxes. Next to the Crow Reservation. Only about 70 miles away. The Indians had always preferred to live with their own traditions and not to care much about the newest technical advance. If he would have to build a secret lab, he would choose a place like that.

So maybe they had almost reached their goal. All the time Casey had been the one who was convinced that this moment would come. How often had Zeke secretly hoped that he would finally accept it that his mission was not more than a product of a muddle-headed guy? But now, where he seemed to be willing to go back to Herrington where hopefully their friends would waiting for them, Zeke was not sure anymore if this decision would be the right one.

"Are you ready to give up," he asked.  
"We were looking for Thunder Mountain for so long."

"The darkness is coming."  
The voice made him jump. Holy shit, this girl was like a ghost, how was it possible that she was back again and they hadn't even noticed her coming down the stairs?  
"But there is still hope. You need to go to Thunder Mountain."

Zeke stiffened and gasped for air. No, this was too much.  
"Case? Let's split," he hissed and grabbed his arm, ready to drag him upstairs if it was necessary, out of the library which had lost all his magic, out of the whorehouse. They would get into the Chevrolet, back on the road again. Driving, just driving, as far away as possible.

But Casey freed himself out of his grip and kneeled down in front of Rose. His voice soft as ever.  
"From where do you know this name? Thunder Mountain."

She looked at him solemnly. Finally, she shrugged.  
"It's no one around to play with anymore," she murmured.

Zeke cringed inwardly when he noticed the wide smile which suddenly spread on Casey's face. As if she had told him something nice.

"I don't know if there are other children in Thunder Mountain," Casey said to Rose.  
"But I know a place you would like. It's a school. A lot of children are living there, they learn ... and they play. I should have thought about this earlier."

***

"I will miss her," the big guy growled when Michelle's old jeep finally vanished in a cloud of dust.

"It's best for her," Casey answered.

The guy pulled the face.  
"Sure it is. Every place is better for her than this."  
He pointed at the big house behind him; excessive noise, loud voices and an outcry of a woman came out of it.  
"Sorry, guys, I need to go back inside. Good luck with your mission."

Zeke smirked slightly.  
"Who would have thought that? This guy can get pretty sentimental."

Casey eyed him thoughtfully.  
"You are glad that she's gone, right?"

Zeke kept quiet, unable to hide his relief.  
"I'm glad that you found this solution," he finally murmured.

It was the best for all of them. When there was a place where Rose would get the help she obviously needed it was the school. Sister Hannah would hopefully find a way to reach her. And Michelle would bring her there safely; the young woman hadn't hesitated to accept this task after she had heard about the old convent which was a school for homeless children now.

And he and Casey, they would be back on the roads, northwards, the Crow Reservation, maybe Thunder Mountain. Whatever would await them there. But as long as he was together with Casey he was ready for just everything.

**the end**  


**Author's Note:**

> written for the Bingo-Challenge 2016 - Get your words out
> 
> also posted at my LJ ( in 3 chapters)


End file.
